Quotes about Engagement

We are comfortable when we should be concerned. We are passive when we should be active. We are satisfied when we should be dissatisfied.

In fact, one of the things that makes a sermon compelling is that the preacher is worshiping his way through his own sermon.

I am persuaded that the church today has many more consumers than committed participants.

Many, many believers think of their church as a place to attend rather than something with which they are intimately involved.

Many Christians also live inside the church virtually unknown. They slip in and out of the weekly service almost unnoticed. Sure, they will exchange niceties with the people near them, and if they do that, they will learn a few cursory details about one another's lives, but they don't really have a relationship with the people with whom they worship.

Now, if these people are not the focus and object of ministry, then what is ministry?

There is only one way to learn It's through action.

Son, if you think about, read about, and talk about demons, they will show up.

The Bible shows us that obedience to God is not about cutting and pasting the Bible over our lives, but seeking the path of wisdom—holding the sacred book in one hand and ourselves, our communities of faith, and our world in the other in order to discern how the God of old is present here and now.

judging by how the Bible actually behaves—God did not design scripture to be a hushed afternoon in an oak-paneled library. Instead, God has invited us to participate in a wrestling match, a forum for us to be stretched and to grow.

I feel that if we do not engage Scripture with future believers in mind, we will unwittingly erect unnecessary and tragic obstacles to belief. Part of what drives this book is my concern to help prevent that scenario.

Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She replied, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her wrists.